butterfly's dream
by seinooo.kcvii
Summary: ...They knew. -ReTi oneshot for The Sacred and Profane.


Here's _butterfly's dream_ for The Sacred and Profane.

I own nothing however bored and jobless I am.

* * *

A charming, multicolored butterfly landed softly on a random petal, slowly flapping its wings in a rhythmic pattern until it came to a stop.

_He_ saw. _She_ saw too … the two petite figures – one blond, the other dark haired and both had their hair almost the same length – huddling together and interacted in low whispers, Yuffie and Elena. _They_ saw, therefore, _they_ knew.

The tricksters would get played in the end.

-- -- --

Reno spotted her from the tinted, layered windows, from his current floor. He observed her cheerfully walk to the entrance. He saw her smiling from the reflection in front of him. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed her lifting her hands. Step by step, she tiptoed to him and slid her hands over his eyes. "Guess who," she sang playfully.

Now he couldn't see her.

" … A monster?"

"Reno," she huffed.

"Alright, alright. _Tifa_." Tifa giggled as Reno pulled her arms and automatically she embraced him.

How very sweet. Elena gritted her teeth and snapping her plastic spoon she used to dig her ice-cream with. Tseng shook his head watching that blond muttering some curses towards the two lovey-dovey couple as she followed them out to their destination. On the way, Elena spotted her partner-in-crime, Yuffie, and joined her.

They observed the couple some more. Tifa was happily giggling and laughing like she's the embodiment of joy herself. Their prime target was Tifa but when they noticed Reno was just as blissful as she was, they were having second thoughts. _Just Tifa or both of them?_

Such a prefect couple. Jealousy got the best of them.

"Are you thinking the same thing I am now, Yuffie?" Elena whispered from their spying spot.

Yuffie nodded with the binoculars still in her hands. "Get that lion-head too."

"Okay, on three. One," Elena began.

"…two," Yuffie continued.

"Three.," they said in unison and used the two new materias Yuffie had just 'accidentally' discovered from a chest. A dim blue glow emitted from the two materias and died. That was it, basically.

"Were they broken?" Elena shook her materia and it slipped from her hands. It rolled to the direction of Reno and Tifa's table and she winced. "Oops.".

Yuffie gasped when she thought Reno was glancing her way. "Holy sh—

"Reno?" Tifa asked when she found him bending down to retrieve the pale blue materia that rolled out of _nowhere_. Reno kept on turning and scanning that materia, trying to figure out what it was for. "Is something wrong?"

Reno returned to his seat, looking in utter bemusement. "I found this on the floor."

"Oh, quit being such a _brat_ and just put it back where you got it."

Poof! Silence.

"Ooh, it works!" Yuffie nudged Elena, still observing them.

"What? How?"

-- -- --

"Reno?" Tifa watched the smoke disappear like mist, revealing a very young redhead, not older than twelve and his boyish looks could be on par with Denzel's or surpassing Cloud's. He was still in his Turk uniform which mysteriously fitted him. Tifa almost choked on her own candy when she realized it wasn't Reno – or maybe it was – opposite her.

"Hey, Tifa what—why do I feel short? Why are you tall so suddenly?" Reno saw his reflection on the nearby windows and was shocked beyond words. "Oh, mother effin'– " Reno let out a string of profanities pointing out to his 'stunted growth' as he was stressing at that time.

_That's Reno alright_. "Reno, I told you to put that where it was before…"

"You sound like a nagging _old woman_ like that," Reno stated, turning around to see his whole body that he wasn't even used to.

A raspy voice came out of Tifa's lips as she said, "Govern your tongue, you piercing-laden Moomba. Hack—

She started coughing and wheezing. Reno grinned from his spot but before he could think of a suitable comeback, he found a tail swishing wildly all around. He stared at it in bewilderment. "What the mrrow—

Tifa cackled and wheezed, hurting her back in the process. "You're such a nightmare, Reno."

Poof!

From the smokes, out came an appallingly huge and grotesque _nightmare_ of hers, a spider, equipped with his red furry head. By now, both of them had figured out their abilities. "Tifa Lockhart, who's helpless like a _hart_ herself now?" he asked mockingly.

That seemed to be the trigger. Tifa was instantly transformed into a deer, blinking in confusion as of what she had become. From their hiding places, Elena was having a difficult time controlling their laughs – but she managed to get by – to the ridiculous types of transformations their victims had. Yuffie, on the other hand, fell off from her branch and landed on her butt gracelessly.

"Owie…" she voiced. Reno and Tifa spotted her, with her binoculars still in hand.

"Yuffie?" Tifa asked.

_The deer spoke_. That couldn't have made Yuffie laugh out loud than she was now. Elena jumped off and pulled the limp body of Yuffie up. Elena shot the two an apologetic look as she supported Yuffie. "Ah, hey, Tifa," she breathed, half giggling. "You look like you."

Reno stared at them out of his numerous set of eyes, feeling every bit of dizziness hit him as time passed by. "Why are you here?" he hissed.

"Um, we're not really spying on you two and we're not even using the materias so that you'd be able to transform with one word you really stress. The area of effect is not even wide—ack! Oops." Elena panicked at what she had just spilled and she received icicle glares from the spider and the deer.

"Oh boy, he's almost as dangerous as a _snake_," Yuffie said as she stood up on her own. Another poof and he became a huge serpent. Tifa froze in her spot for a split second and bounded away, leaving the three staring at her in dismay.

"Damn it, I'll get back to you, you _bratsss_," Reno snapped at both of them, and they hung their heads low in apprehension.

"I don't like this," Yuffie whined.

"Yeah. Your materia sucked," Elena sniffled. The two ladies wailed and sobbed like the brats they were. "We're sorry, Reno."

"Hope you really are," he muttered and tracked Tifa's trail, slithering side to side and hissing loudly and knocking garbage bins over on the way.

-- -- --

Tricksters played and got played in the end.

Now it was his turn. He would see her, find her.

All the effect wore off from him and he had guessed she would be back to normal. He heard shuffling from the bushes somewhere in the heart of that small patch of forest which were currently scattered with yellow fluffy, feathered birds. Those shuffles were unnatural – not from the said chocobo themselves.

Even when she thought she was safely hidden behind a tree, the wind that swayed her hair and her faint scent of cherries gave her away.

He saw her.

After running for so long, she had decided to hide. She couldn't see him, yet she could feel his warm presence enveloping her back. Slowly, slowly … his hand blocked her line of sight and another wrapped her waist as he rested his head on her shoulder.

"Guess who?" he asked, tickling her side when she shook her head.

She laughed and wheezed while squirming in his grasp. "That's a no-brainer," she sputtered.

"Make a wild guess."

"You." She took his hand away from her eyes and with her grin growing that very time, she faced him and gave a peck on the cheek. "So?"

Everything they orchestrated to the point that it was believable and they were even surprised by themselves. Grinning, he answered, "We owned them."

"Reno."

"Yeah?"

Tifa cocked her eyebrow, amused to no ends and placed her knuckles on her hips. "A hart?"

"U-huh. I get to get a peek of how you would look like in the future, too."

"Jerk," she muttered to his chest.

"My second name," he chuckled. "I had fun chasing a wild doe today."

Tifa poked his ribs in slight annoyance. "My fear of spiders just got worst and I found a new phobia now," she sighed. While the two of them were making comments on each other, the lone butterfly made its way through the forest, oblivious to everything around it.


End file.
